Fowl Swoop, Marineville’s third L.P., starts off with a cool low-fi sound that expands nicely, dirty but with enough pop to get you interested from the get-go. And musically it continues throughout the record. In fact, musically it’s kind of cool, with nice crunchy warm guitar sounds that are strong but melodic. Unfortunately the melodies are what hold this record back to get lost amongst the millions of others that wallow in mild mediocrity. MarineVille sounds like a band that would be fun to see on a Saturday night if you were with friends and out for a good time, but would also be the band that pissed you off if you were dragged to a show when you didn’t really want to be there but felt you should go. Basically that’s the longwinded version of: they won’t turn you, but if you’re in the mood you’ll enjoy it.
Lyrically it isn’t strong. It plays off overused ideas but doesn’t develop any of them nor take a new twist or spin on them. In fact some of the lyrics are just downright bad. And unfortunately the vocal style gives access to the naff lyrics that kind of make you cringe as if you’re listening to some guy at a party trying to prove he’s cool enough to a poor girl nodding politely.
There are some nice moments that do take you by surprise musically, some nice guitar parts and segues that work really well, but on the whole it’s not consistent enough to pull it all together. What helps this record out is that the band sounds like they’re having a good time and they probably are, so while this album might not be breaking any boundaries or taking the band to any new heights, they seem to be and hopefully are enjoying what they’re doing. If you get a chance to see them live, I suspect it could be fun.